While there's no aquatically subterranean Playing in the Band like the one performed at the Boston show a couple nights prior, or a mammoth Dark Star like the one they would tap into in Cleveland days later, 12/4/73 stands proudly as a crackling ambassador of one of the band's finest tours, thanks in large part to a captivating, at times very dark Eyes of the World. Comparatively short and rough around the edges, Cincinnati '73 starts of as a good timey gig. For the first chunk of the show, almost every song except the crisp Me and My Uncle is musically on the happier side, and displays like Garcia's rockstar-style shredding on Johnny B. Goode and the playful, psychedelic, nimble agility he locks into with Kreutzmann on the China Cat instrumental passages must've had the cold Ohioan crowd feeling roasty toasty.

The Truckin' > Stella Blue transition swiped my face clean off; I hadn't looked at the setlist before listening to this show, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. What a truly ingenious pairing. However, the biggest story of this show is the Eyes of the World. The first ever played in Ohio, it starts off like any other from the tour. Garcia trumpets out bright, hopeful licks, Lesh and Kreutzmann bundling him along while Weir and Godchaux paint against the grain with well-placed chords and ornaments. The poetic lyrics are delivered with heart. They jam it out, and the closer to The Seven jam they get, the more interesting it gets. Kreutzmann is jackhammering the snare, and eventually at around the 13:45 mark, Jerry and Phil let the whole thing slip into the abyss. Segments become so boundless that they unfurl backwards into themselves and shift into new textures. The notes suddenly take on a little more extraterrestrial texture, folklore, and echo as the silenced midwest crowd falls into the palm of the Grateful Dead's acidic hand. Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh combine for a science fiction duet, Jerry's notes orbiting around Phil's bombs, electronic prowess, and early hints of Seastones. Just as the Feedback washes over it all, Kreutzmann snags it in stride and stakes out a beat. Rather than return to the joyous nature of the song's lyrics, Jerry, Billy, and Keith season the jam with additional diabolical deliberations.

23 minutes in, when you're just about at your wit's end, Bobby picks into what should be a rowdy rocker, Sugar Magnolia. Hilariously, the sheer madness of the preceding Eyes makes Sugar Mag seem shy and almost sheepish - like an apologetic offering from the band that says "sorry for taking you so far out into space, here's some sugar". 3 more rockers follow to close things out. Other than some iffy balance in the recording of One More Saturday Night, they all hit the spot. With a last showboating crescendo, Bobby thanks the crowd and wishes them a good night, after having already given them a great one.

This Miller SBD accompanied me on a drive to and from a Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band show at CMAC last week. It's one of those shows you just love to review - a little under the radar, but packed with the good stuff. The galactic material they funneled into the venue during Eyes was still relatively new for the Grateful Dead at the time, and I'm sure many of those who attended must've been hooked for life if they weren't already. Check this one out!

Not my fave, this one - that Eyes > Space > Jam, at 23+ minutes, really, really cool. But a lot of this show has a real start-stop, hesitant feel to it....especially Phil and Bill. Sugar Magnolia is a mess, and Phil doesn't even play on China Cat for a while as it warms up. Truckin' is mangled even by all-too-familiar Dead standards.

But, still, that *Eyes*....

He said there were posters saying "The Grateful Dead- They might play all night!"... as it turned out, the band were hours late. They played a super short show and split, leaving the crowd pretty mad.

Here we are 40 years later and short or not- it's a great show.

Calm down, calm down, if you really, really, really want it, you can download/torrent it from E-Tree. Only 2 seeds but, if you stay switched-on overnight, should be done in a couple of days.

If you're not into the Bit-Torrent thing (you should be - it's a 'get out of jail' card for instances like this, post your E-mail address and I'll send you a copy (either the Charlie Miller or the bonus disc - I have both - or both) for a modest fee - millions of millions.

TW-4-10-0-9

Well this is bullshit. I can't believe Rhino/GDP forces the Archive to take down whole shows when ONLY PART of the show was released on a ULTRA LIMITED EDITION CD! Unless you want to pay $200 for the bonus disc on eBay (I have only seen one of these listed in the past two years), you will never get to hear this music. It is an out-of-print bonus disc! Give me a break assholes! Why can't you leave the Miller board up on the Archive? You aren't losing sales! IT IS OUT OF PRINT and you aren't printing any more!

GDP, what you are doing is like taking a complete set of encyclopedias and tearing a few of the most important pages out every once and awhile.

I will not be renewing my Dave's Picks subscription.

Sure was a long wait for this show to start, Charlie: any idea why the band was so late?
Thank you for your never-ending efforts to give us killer sounds.